Newsweek International articles from November 2001

Newsweek International archives from November 2001

Mail Call.
November 5, 2001... Terrorism's Causes And Creators While many readers continued to censure the United States for its Mideast policy, some took other nations to task for the events of Sept. 11. "Saudi Arabia is the root of Islamic terrorism," said one reader....

Tolerating the Intolerable.(civil rights and cultural diversity in Europe seen in different light since terrorist attacks on United States)
November 5, 2001... Harun Aydin, a 29-year-old medical student from Turkey, was about to board an Iran Air flight from Frankfurt to Tehran. Suddenly, a phalanx of German police appeared and whisked him away. In his suitcase investigators found a chemical-warfare...

Blending Fact With Fiction.(Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald)(Review)
November 5, 2001... In "Austerlitz," W. G. Sebald performs a small but significant miracle: he wrests the Holocaust out of the clutches of stale cliche. He does this without ever showing us a death camp or a gas chamber. Instead, this superb novel concentrates on...

Eying the Next Fronts.(organized crime and terrorism - Somalia, Algeria, the Philippines)(Statistical Data Included)
November 5, 2001... The police joined the war before the soldiers. So did the narcs. And the spies. Afghanistan may be a new battlefield to American troops, but it is only one front in the struggle against globalized terror. The war was going on long before the...

The Great Escape.(Al Qaeda terrorists escape Afghanistan)(Statistical Data Included)
November 5, 2001... Using airstrikes and commando raids, the United States says it's hoping to pin down Al Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan. It had better hurry. In the past two months, according to people-smugglers in Pakistan, between 150 and 200 of the so-called...

All Papers in Order.(reporter obtains papers to pose as Afghan refugee)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... How easy is it to make oneself over into a desperate Afghan refugee who deserves asylum in the West? Thousands of Pakistanis, Iranians, Central Asians and other Muslims have done it. Last week I did it, too. First I found one of the dozens of...

A Bomb Here, a Bomb There.(Afghanistan Conflict)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
November 5, 2001... You see a typical stretch of Afghan countryside--treeless, barren except for a few ruined mud huts, the soil dry and dirty orange. A kilometer or so away, there's a bang and a cloud of smoke. The camera pans to follow a tiny silver plane in the...

What Can Iraq Do?(bioterrorism)(Statistical Data Included)
November 5, 2001... Unlike nuclear bombs and deadly chemicals, biological weapons are easy to hide and easy to smuggle. Unfortunately, that also makes them easy to underestimate. For decades Iraq has counted on keeping its bioweapons program out of sight and out...

Precious Gems of the Deep.(pearls)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
November 5, 2001... The ancient Greeks thought pearls were created when lightning struck the sea. Other peoples of antiquity attributed pearls to rain-drops or dewdrops, captured and solidified by clams. But it was another classical civilization whose theory most...

Where the Power Lies.(presidential power)(Statistical Data Included)
November 5, 2001... In the era before Sept. 11, people could say with a straight face that businessmen like Bill Gates were more important than presidents. Not now. George W. Bush is the man. He leads an international war on terror, the reconstruction of New York...

How Fair is Fairtrade?(coffee industry)(Statistical Data Included)
November 5, 2001... The coffee farmers of the Marmas Valley in northern Peru are overcoming a crisis of historic proportions. In fields dotting verdant hillsides near the border with Ecuador, some old-timers remember lean seasons when they allowed the dark red...

Why to Be Bullish on Japan.(Brief Article)(Interview)
November 5, 2001... Six months ago Heizo Takenaka abandoned academia to help rebuild Japan's basket-case economy. As minister for Economic and Fiscal Policy, he's the chief strategist behind Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's sweeping reform agenda, which draws...

Cities in an Age of Terror.(Brief Article)(Interview)
November 5, 2001... Joel Kotkin is one of the world's leading forecasters of global social and economic trends. In his latest book, "The New Geography," Kotkin argues that the digital revolution is driving professionals from America's "first tier" cities to...

Letter From America.(Burning Man Festival)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... I hadn't even gotten out of the car, but already I was having grave doubts. A pack of fat, naked, middle-aged men in body paint had just cruised by on bicycles. A bedraggled guy nearby shouted poetry. Men in animal costumes strolled casually...

Perspectives.(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... "Studied properly, anthrax is less serious than a cold." Cuban president Fidel Castro, on American fears of bioterrorism "Anyone who assists the United States is liable to be killed." Taliban official Abdul Hanan Himat, announcing the...

'We're All The Same'.(American school twinned with Afghan school)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... Many U.S. kids are worried about their safety. Khris Nedam's third graders in Northville, Michigan, fear for the children they've befriended in Afghanistan. "I'd like to tell them we wouldn't bomb them because they're innocent," says Laura...

Fortunate Soldiers.(Soldier of Fortune magazine)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... Robert K. Brown has no patience for pantywaist questions about the war on terrorism. "Let's hunt 'em down and kill 'em," he wrote recently on the Web site of Soldier of Fortune, the American flag-waving, pro- military, pro-gun magazine he...

All the Lives Fit to Print.(New York Times profiles each World Trade Center victim)(Brief Article)(Interview)
November 5, 2001... The media are often criticized for ditching one sensation for another. But despite the allure of anthrax, bombs over Kabul and a war on the ground, The New York Times will continue with its daily full page of short profiles of WTC attack...

Oh, Will You Please Grow Up!(China feels slighted by Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... Taiwan has joined the international crackdown on terrorist money- laundering. The effort is headed by the Financial Action Task Force and the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), which enforce anti- money-laundering standards in member...

Read All About It.(books on Islam and jihad popular)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... Formerly dusty books dealing with the Afghanistan conflict have been selling off the shelves. "Jihad: The Secret War in Afghanistan," by Tom Carew, was expected to sell 10,000 copies when first published in Britain last year, but that forecast...

WTC SYNDROME.(respiratory illness common in rescuers, survivors of World Trade Center collapse)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... New York-area physicians have begun seeing a series of illnesses among emergency workers and others who were trapped in the dense plumes of dust and debris on Sept. 11. Dubbed World Trade Center Syndrome, the ailments range from unrelenting...

The Wrong Stuff.(cocaine packages feature Osama bin Laden)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... Hundreds of paper packets, containing white powder and emblazoned with a picture of Osama bin Laden, were seized by police in Rio recently. It didn't make front-page news, possibly because the powder wasn't anthrax. It was the latest brand of...

Comedy Of Errors.(questionable taste of television program)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... Nothing gets a good belly laugh like death and destruction. Or so you might think. At CBS, execs are considering green-lighting a "romantic comedy" set in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 strikes. The series would star a middle-aged couple brought...

Tough Choices For the Euro Bosses.(economic outlook)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... Again, last week's European economic news looked grim. A new survey from the IFO Institute for Economic Research reported that Germany's economic growth rate fell to 0.2 percent in the second quarter and registered its sharpest monthly fall in...

The War On Restraint.(American media)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... So far, the war against terror has been a relatively small affair--but the jingoism quotient is as high as can be. The headlines tell it all. FOUND HIM? POUND HIM! screamed the tabloid New York Post last week. CNN's on-screen banner...

Mail Call.
November 12, 2001... Making Sense Of the Anger Readers lauded our Oct. 15 cover story analyzing the volatile relationship between the United States and the Mideast. Writer Fareed Zakaria was praised for his "profound knowledge, fair judgment and deep...

Fortress America.(tougher US immigration policies)(Brief Article)
November 12, 2001... America has long welcomed newcomers from foreign lands--Middle Eastern refugees, Latin American job seekers, Canadian shoppers, Asian students or European tourists who want to try a Budweiser beer and watch a Broadway show. They come to take...

Broke on the Rio Grande.(less US travelers to Mexican border communities)(Brief Article)
November 12, 2001... On the sidewalk outside La Mina, the waiters keep a lonely vigil, scanning the horizon for anyone they might coax inside to buy a drink. U.S. visitors to Mexico used to make this bar one of the busiest gathering places in the border city of...

Australia's Refugee Archipelago.(Brief Article)
November 12, 2001... The scores of Afghan refugees who landed on Nauru in mid-September were dazed for good reason. They had spent a month at sea, and they had expected their journey to end on the vast shores of Australia. Instead they found themselves dumped onto...

Behind the Smiles.(President Bush's coalition against terrorism)
November 12, 2001... You can feel winter coming on, and it's not just a matter of snowstorms blowing down the mountains of Afghanistan. The international alliance against terrorism is entering a new and dangerous phase, opening hidden cracks and fissures--not...

Saving the Coral Reefs.(Indonesia)
November 12, 2001... For 34 years said Nuhung made a fairly easy living as a fisherman. He would take his small boat out off the coastal village of Tumbak, on the eastern coast of Indonesia's North Sulawesi province, to the reefs. Looking into the clear water, he...

Is Hugo Chavez Insane?(Venezuelan president)(Brief Article)
November 12, 2001... After a three-week, 15-country tour, Hugo Chavez returned home last month to a rapturous reception from tens of thousands of cheering supporters. At least, that's how the Venezuelan president seems to have perceived what others saw as a...

From Seattle to Doha.(international free trade conferences)(Brief Article)
November 12, 2001... He was, one witness recalls, like a football coach delivering a pep talk in the final minutes of a hopeless game. It was Dec. 3, 1999, the last day of the doomed global summit in Seattle. Michael Moore was trying to save the world-trade talks...

Phoenix Rising.(Phoenix Television in Hong Kong)
November 12, 2001... In the first hours after the September 11 terrorist attacks, Hong Kong- based Phoenix TV was the only source of news for millions of Chinese. State broadcaster CCTV made only a brief announcement shortly after the attacks, then provided no more...

Sleeping With The Enemy?(United States foreign policy)
November 12, 2001... Once upon a time the ogres of international terror were known to all: Libya's leader, Muammar Kaddafi, was branded the most dangerous man in the world, a lunatic who thought nothing of blowing up a Pan Am 747 out of the sky over Scotland....

Sales of the Century.(deals in travel industry)(Brief Article)
November 12, 2001... Would-be vacationers face a dilemma: just when they really need a relaxing getaway, traveling has become more stressful than staying home. Some worry about safety. Others are more concerned about splurging on a vacation during uncertain...

Anatomy of a Disconnected War.(war in literature)(Brief Article)
November 12, 2001... The war in Afghanistan has inspired a mass of images and commentary, but it has not yet engaged the popular imagination. Objectively, it is terrifying. Subjectively, it remains strangely uninvolving. Part of the widespread uncertainty...

The Stoic Wife.(Bernadette Chirac)(Review)
November 12, 2001... It's not easy being married to a man "who has an incredible success with girls," admits Bernadette Chirac, wife of French President Jacques Chirac, in her new book, "Conversation." With that, Madame Chirac shatters most preconceptions of her....

Finding Identity In Life's Margins.(Half a Life)(Review)
November 12, 2001... The title of V. S. Naipaul's first novel in seven years, "Half a Life" (Knopf), is somewhat misleading. The slim volume speaks more of half- and-half lives--characters shaped by their postcolonial contexts, of middling rank and divided...

Down Home In Georgia.(white supremacists)(Brief Article)
November 12, 2001... When she talks about her two young daughters, Amy's whole tone changes. "They're just so beautiful," she says with a gentle Southern twang. "They got curly blond hair and blue eyes." Suddenly I see. The glow on her face is not just maternal...

Worst-Case Scenarios.(possible Middle East conflicts)(Brief Article)
November 12, 2001... The United States vows to fight through Ramadan. It promises to fight through winter--and beyond. Yet even in the early days of the bombing campaign in Afghanistan, there was rioting in the streets of Muslim capitals. Pakistani President Pervez...

Perspectives.
November 12, 2001... "The enemy won't rest during Ramadan and neither will we." President George W. Bush, on continuing the aerial assault on Afghanistan Mayor Giuliani, let us bring our brothers home. Sign carried by one of hundreds of firefighters marching...

Show Them the Money.(United States economic conditions)(Brief Article)
November 12, 2001... Grim, grim, grim. Dashing hopes that the U.S. economy had hit rock bottom, last week's figures confirm that the country is still headed down. On Wednesday the U.S. economy in the third quarter was reported to have shrunk by 0.4 percent,...

War Watch Notes From all Fronts Battle of Britain.(Brief Article)
November 12, 2001... An estimated 200 British Muslims have already gone to Afghanistan to fight on the side of Taliban forces, says one British terrorism expert (the government claims it's still just a "handful"). And British troops will soon be on the ground in...

Towns in Terror.(Uzbekistan)(Brief Article)
November 12, 2001... When the Uzbek government announced the arrival of U.S. soldiers at the airbase in Khanabad last month, most locals were eager to meet their new neighbors. Today many wish the Americans would go home. Not that the Americans themselves are...

Ah, the Good Old Days?(South Africa)(Brief Article)
November 12, 2001... Fed up with her fellow South Africans' whining about either how little improvement has been made in the postapartheid era or how life used to be so much better in the old days, author Stephanie Vermeulen finally took a stand last week. On...

New-Age Cipro.(methods to prevent anthrax poisoning)(Brief Article)
November 12, 2001... As some Americans hoard antibiotics to ward off anthrax, others are stocking up on herbs, roots, mushrooms and mineral potions believed to boost immunity or ward off bad mojo. Popular natural treatments include astragalus root, schizandra...

Dream Job?(working for the European Space Agency)(Brief Article)
November 12, 2001... Despite these tough economic times, the ideal job still exists. The European Space Agency is looking for men between 25 and 45 years of age to spend 90 days lying in bed, in order to test the effect of weightlessness on muscle and bone tissue....

The Ride of A Lifetime.(attractions in Pompeii)(Brief Article)
November 12, 2001... Visitors to the Mount Vesuvius area will soon be able to see more than indistinguishable ruins surrounding the ancient volcano. A new cultural leisure park in Pompeii--to be partially completed by 2003--will feature simulator rides that take...

Art Imitates... Retail?(Andy Warhol Foundation)(Brief Article)
November 12, 2001... Andy Warhol once famously said: "Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art." Posthumously, he still seems to have the Midas touch. The Andy Warhol Foundation, which manages the rights to his works, has agreed to license...

Paleontology Bombing Bones.(archaeological excavations in Pakistan)(Brief Article)
November 12, 2001... Whoever said there was nothing valuable to bomb in South Asia clearly wasn't a paleontologist. A French-led dig team has found fossilized teeth in central Pakistan from the earliest known lemur, the only evidence of the primitive primates...

A World In Shades Of Gray.(Bernhard Schlink)
November 12, 2001... Outwardly, Bernhard Schlink's life hasn't changed much in recent years. Now 57, he still teaches constitutional law and the philosophy of law at Humboldt University in Berlin. He still commutes once or twice a month to Munster, where he is a...

Mail Call.(Letter to the Editor)
November 19, 2001... More Anguish For Afghanistan Our coverage of the war in Afghanistan continued to provoke applause and opprobrium from our readers. One Muslim letter writer urged other Muslims to "reassess our value system and cultivate respect for other...

America's New Friend?(Vladimir Putin )
November 19, 2001... Four days before Vladimir Putin was to meet George W. Bush in Shanghai, he assembled his "power ministers," the top Kremlin and military brass. The good news, he told them, was that he'd come up with $135 million the military needed to pay its...

The Death of the Bad Idea.(the Russian economy)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Few would have thought that the debacle of '98 was the best thing that could have happened to Russia. And yet it's so. Where once was chaos, collapse and destitution, there is now stability, reform and growth. In today's stressed world of...

'There Are No Terrorists Here'.(Hezbollah activities in South America)
November 19, 2001... Ciudad Del Este offers something for everyone. Search the warrens of stores and galleries in the dingy Paraguayan town, hard by the borders of Brazil and Argentina, and you'll find the finest in French champagne, sneakers so cheap they might as...

Lightning Rod.(Japan's foreign minister Makiko Tanaka)
November 19, 2001... Before she took the helm as Japan's top diplomat last April, Makiko Tanaka told NEWSWEEK that she hoped to be her government's "brains" on foreign policy. Half a year and several less-measured words later, Japan's first female foreign minister...

Unlikely Stars.(traditional shamisen music popular)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... From the time the Yoshida brothers were young, they had to live out their father's frustrated musical ambitions. He forced them to kneel, for five or six hours at a stretch, and play an ancient, banjolike instrument with a body of dog skin,...

The Pill Machine.(AIDS drugs in Africa)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Twenty years ago, a scientist discovered that a drug being tested for heartworm in dogs was also a miracle cure for river blindness in humans. That was big news, and a bigger dilemma for the scientist's bosses at Merck pharmaceuticals. As a...

A Respite From the War.(radio program depicts life in Afghanistan)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... When Shirazuddin Siddiqi first heard about the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, he figured his radio program "New Home, New Life" was finished. Broadcast to Afghans by the BBC since 1994, the program mixes comedy, drama and...

Broadcasting Freedom.(Radio Free Europe )(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... In its latest bid to win the information war, Washington is set to expand broadcasts of Radio Free Europe (RFE)--the U.S.-funded service that promotes democracy around the world--into Afghanistan. Last week the House of Representatives approved...

The 'Guerrilla' Minister.(Brazilian health minister Jose Serra)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Brazilian health minister Jose Serra has never been one to dodge a fight. In the early 1960s he presided over the left-wing National Students Union, which lashed out at the "military gorillas" plotting a "reactionary coup d'etat." The next...

Art in Exile.(Soviet era dissident art featured at Nukus Museum)
November 19, 2001... On the wall of the Nukus Museum, a crazed-looking bull with pointed horns stares out at visitors. The picture was painted by a man named Lysenko. Art historians don't know his first name, or much else about him--except that he was forced to...

Taking Aim at Hollywood.(Hector Babenco)(Brief Article)(Interview)
November 19, 2001... Hector Babenco is as global a filmmaker as they come. Born in Argentina and a naturalized Brazilian, he shoots in Spanish, Portuguese and English, in settings ranging from stylish Buenos Aires to the Amazon rain forest. He's won awards for...

Tinseltown Follies.(Hollywood producers mull over what audience wants)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... An actor friend of mine tells the following story: he was working as a lunch-shift bartender at a swank Beverly Hills restaurant. The customers were all talking about a terrible plane crash that occurred earlier that morning. A well-known agent...

Perspectives.(quotations)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... "Our forces have captured the city. The Taliban is fleeing." Atiqullah Baryalai, deputy Defense minister of the Northern Alliance, on victory in Mazar-e Sharif "[The September 11 attacks] were perpetrated by a cult of fanatics who had...

Fear of Loose Nukes.(production of nuclear weapons may start with materials from Russia)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Forget anthrax; now it's nukes. On Saturday Osama bin Laden told Dawn newspaper in Pakistan that Al Qaeda has nuclear weapons to be used "as a deterrent." Although unconfirmed, his claim can hardly be ignored. The United States has long worried...

Enduring Patience.(1986 bombing of a nightclub, Berlin, Germany)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Bringing terrorists to justice will take a lot of patience, President George W. Bush has warned repeatedly. Just how much is aptly illustrated by this week's expected verdict in the trial of a terrorist attack... 15 years ago. In April 1986 a...

Fighting Prejudice.(two gay politicians run for office in Taiwan)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Gay people are so sick that they deserve no offspring," said the founder of Taiwan's pro-China New Party, Wang Chien-shien, in 1998, echoing a widespread sentiment. Still, that hasn't deterred James Jan and Webster Chen, Taiwan's first openly...

War Watch Far From The Front Lines.(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... WAR WOMEN: During World War II, the likes of Betty Grable and Vera Lynn comforted U.S. and British troops. Recently the never-shy Pamela Anderson and former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell have stepped into their shoes, schmoozing with troops at...

Up, Up and Away!(Air France, British Airways resume Concorde service)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Air France and British Airways Concordes hit Mach 2 across the Atlantic last week during their first commercial flights since the crash outside Paris 15 months ago that claimed 113 lives. But why would anyone take the risk to fly supersonic,...

Ditching Davos For New York.(World Economic Forum to hold annual conference in New York City)(Brief Article)(Interview)
November 19, 2001... Every year for the past three decades, heads of state and global business leaders have descended on Davos, Switzerland, for skiing, schnapps and high talk of weighty matters at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting. This January, however,...

First Person Global.(war correspondent comments on nature of war in Afghanistan)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Afghanistan In Afghanistan you spend a lot of time sitting on cushions--Persian style--talking to commanders, drinking tea with commanders, sitting silently opposite commanders, smiling politely. The first thing you notice is their boots:...

Robots Go Postal.(use by Postal Service)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... According to a new U.N. survey, sales of industrial robots rose to record levels last year: there are 750,000 robots now working worldwide, and more robotic employees are expected in the next few years. One industry in particular, the U.S....

Sex No Longer Sells.(European advertising)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Are Europe's advertising authorities going ultra-PC? Long known for their tolerance in advertising everything from beer to chocolate, Europe's watchdogs are clamping down on ads that are violent, convey images of submission, portray people as...

Mail Call.
November 26, 2001... Furor Over A Saudi Prince Christopher Dickey's Oct. 22 interview with Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal drew a feverish response, many critical of the prince or his regime. One reader contended that "the root cause of the September 11 attack...

The Next Battle.(Afghanistan)(Brief Article)
November 26, 2001... In the cities and towns of war-torn Afghanistan, the lightning collapse of Taliban control has felt to many like liberation. Men have cut off their long beards, children have flown kites, women have listened to musty old film songs. The country...

The Bin Laden Dividend.(Brief Article)
November 26, 2001... In a secluded corner of Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport, Tuvia Livneh will be teaching a group of European security guards next week how to kill hijackers. Assisted by former Army commandos, Livneh will instruct clients in his air-marshals course...

Down-Home Diplomacy.(George W. Bush, Vladimir Putin)
November 26, 2001... There was no vestige of the cold-war chill in Crawford, Texas, last week. President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, had Russian President Vladimir Putin down to their Prairie Chapel Ranch for a dose of diplomacy, Texas style. A band played...

Red, White and What a Deal!(Brief Article)
November 26, 2001... Cindy Gallop didn't need market research to see the mood of the country had changed. The week of September 11, her advertising agency, Bartle, Bogle, Hegarty, was putting the finishing touches on a campaign for the bond firm Cantor Fitzgerald....

Selling The U.S.A.
November 26, 2001... Most of the new PR plan was ready to go. As the new moon ushered in the month of Ramadan last week, U.S. officials prepared "Mosques of America" posters, showing glossy images of domes and minarets, for distribution across the Arab world....

Groping in the Dark.(Brief Article)
November 26, 2001... The usually bright and airy Guggenheim Museum looks somewhat darker and melodramatic these days. That's putting it mildly. The whole rotunda has been painted absolute black, and Frank Lloyd Wright's original terrazzo flooring for his landmark...

Shooting Away the Pain.(Nan Goldin)
November 26, 2001... In April 1964, 18-year-old Barbara Goldin threw herself across the railroad tracks outside Union Station in Washington and was killed by an oncoming train. Her 11-year-old sister, Nan, never got over it. Last week in Paris, as the 48-year-old...

Fasten Your Seat Belts.(Brief Article)
November 26, 2001... CEOs have always used the jargon of combat, but now the battle metaphors feel all too real. Since September 11, the Kroll security- consulting company has been asked by 200 of the Fortune 500 companies to assess the vulnerability of top...